Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole–Instant Pot chicken and pasta in a creamy sauce with a poppy seed-Ritz cracker topping.

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Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

Today’s recipe comes from Peggy. She says, “My family LOVES this and it is so simple to make! I take it a lot for potlucks, or when I take food to someone’s home. They always request the recipe, so I’ve started taking the recipe with the dish.” I’ve adapted Peggy’s recipe to make it in the Instant Pot and I have cooked the pasta alongside the chicken at the same time. It’s good, old-fashioned comfort food.

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon chicken base
• Chicken tenderloins–or chicken thighs cut into cubes
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Black pepper
• Penne pasta–or another short cut pasta
• Cream of chicken soup–or cream of mushroom soup
• Sour cream–or plain yogurt
• Ritz crackers
• Butter
• Poppy seeds

Steps

Pour broth into Instant Pot. Add in half of the chicken tenderloins. Add in onion powder, garlic powder and pepper. Add in the pasta, place other half of chicken on top of pasta. Dump the cream of chicken soup on top. 

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.

In a bowl add the sour cream and then a half cup of the hot mixture inside Instant Pot. This will temper the sour cream so it doesn’t separate. Stir the mixture into the Instant Pot. 

In a bowl stir together crushed Ritz crackers, melted butter and poppy seeds. Sprinkle it over the chicken and pasta. Place air fryer lid on top (if you have one) and air fry at 400 degrees for 3 minutes. If you don’t have an air fryer lid you can place your stainless steel insert into the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, or until top starts to brown up.

Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• Serve with roasted broccoli or green beans.
• The Ritz cracker topping is optional. You can just have the pasta, chicken and sauce without the topping.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. The Ritz topping won’t be crunchy when to rewarm the leftovers, however.
• Another recipe you can make with poppy seeds is Illinois Casserole.
• If you use another type of pasta you may need to adjust the cooking time. Here is the formula: look at the back of the box of pasta and see how many minutes it says to boil the pasta. If it’s 10 minutes you divide that number by 2 (=5) and then subtract 2 minutes. So you would pressure cook for 3 minutes. I usually use a 5-10 minute natural pressure release for pasta. 

Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for. 

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.